RFI.docx

State of South Carolina

Request for Information Solicitation: Date Issued: Procurement Officer:

Phone: E-Mail Address: Mailing Address:

5400020924 02/19/2021 Randy Barr, Sr. (803) 896-5232 rbarr@mmo.sc.gov SFAA, Div. of Procurement Services, ITMO 1201 Main Street, Suite 600 Columbia SC 29201

DESCRIPTION: Digital Government Services (DGS)

Submit your responses via email to rbarr@mmo.sc.gov with [Company Name] DGS – RFI# 5400020924 in Subject line

SUBMIT RFI RESPONSE BY: March 8, 2021h @ 11:00 AM

Table of Contents

1. Overview The South Carolina Department of Administration's Office of Technology and Information Services (OTIS) is responsible for providing key information technology services and solutions to agencies throughout South Carolina's state government enterprise. OTIS delivers services and solutions directly, but it also manages contracts for externally provided services. One such service is the state's digital government portal and payment service (“Digital Government Services”.) OTIS defines digital government services as "delivering government services in the digital age at any time to any device." This definition summarizes the ordinary citizen's perception of how they would like to consume state services they need when they need them. While an ambitious target, OTIS intends to begin responding to citizen demand through a procurement process designed to enhance the state's digital government offerings.

State Fiscal Accountability Authority (SFAA) issues this Request for Information (RFI) to solicit information that will be used to assist with the development of a solicitation for Digital Government Services that may be released soon. Specifically, this request seeks information from which OTIS can formulate strategies and requirements to meet the program's desired outcomes. SFAA will produce a solicitation that promotes competition and creative solutions from the respondents. OTIS is open to all ideas that will raise our awareness and knowledge of current, innovative solutions to define the requirements. Specifically, OTIS encourages qualified service providers to share their creative ideas and information, including the latest industry trends and new emerging technology, capabilities, operating models, and business models for the following services:

1. Application Development and Maintenance Services

2. Technology Infrastructure Services

3. Payment Services

4. Marketing and Promotion Services

5. Customer Service

6. Service Integration and Management

This RFI is an opportunity for respondents to share ideas and information with OTIS and potentially have one-on-one discussions and "Art of the Possible" sessions between OTIS and respondents. Respondents invited for "Art of the Possible" sessions should be prepared to provide insight into current transformation and innovation solutions and technologies and services anticipated to emerge in the next 3-5 years.

2. Disclaimer This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation for future business, an offer for procurement, or any other type of current or future procurement or contractual action and is only intended to gather input. SFAA will not award a contract based on this RFI, nor will it pay for the information it receives. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by SFAA to form a binding contract. No party is bound by the information provided in response to this RFI.

Respondents may provide market-based pricing structures and describe potential services or solutions for planning purposes only.

Respondents are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. SFAA is not liable for any costs or fees incurred by the respondent in preparing its responses.

Confidentiality If any of the information in the vendor response is considered confidential, proprietary, or a trade secret, it must be clearly indicated on the appropriate page of the vendor response. Release of such materials is governed by the South Carolina Freedom of Information Law, which in pertinent part requires the requester to provide specific justification as to why disclosure of particular information in the response would cause substantial injury to the competitive position of the vendor. It is incumbent upon the vendor to specify company-specific trade secrets in need of protection where public disclosure of said trade secrets would harm the company.

Public Access to Procurement Information in South Carolina: -http://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t11c035.php SECTION 11-35-410. Public access to procurement information.

(A) Procurement information must be a public record to the extent required by Chapter 4, Title 30 (The Freedom of Information Act), except as otherwise provided by this code, and with the exception that commercial or financial information obtained in response to a request for proposals or any type of bid solicitation that is privileged and confidential need not be disclosed.

(B) Privileged and confidential information is information in specific detail not customarily released to the general public, the release of which might cause harm to the competitive position of the party supplying the information. Examples of this type of information include:

(1) customer lists;

(2) design recommendations and identification of prospective problem areas under an RFP;

(3) design concepts, including methods and procedures;

(4) biographical data on key employees of the bidder.

(C) The board shall promulgate regulations directing the public availability and disposition of documents submitted in response or with regard to a solicitation or other request where no award is made.

(D) For all documents submitted in response or with regard to any solicitation or other request, the person submitting the documents shall comply with instructions provided in the solicitation for marking information exempt from public disclosure. Information not marked as required by the applicable instructions may be disclosed to the public.

(E) A governmental body, with the approval of the appropriate chief procurement officer, may keep portions of a solicitation confidential and release the information to prospective offerors only upon execution of a nondisclosure agreement, provided the information is otherwise exempted from disclosure by law.

(F) If requested in writing before a final award by an actual bidder, offeror, contractor, or subcontractor with regard to a specific intended award or award of a contract, the procurement officer shall, within five days of the receipt of any such request, make documents directly connected to the procurement activity and not otherwise exempt from disclosure available for inspection at an office of the responsible procurement officer. Without otherwise limiting any other exemptions granted by law, and except as provided herein, documents of and documents incidental to proposed contractual arrangements, including those used for contract negotiations, are not exempt from disclosure after the date notice of intent to award is posted, unless the notice is subsequently canceled.

Respondents to this RFI shall not provide recommendations for specific courses of action and shall not be deemed an advisor or consultant to OTIS. OTIS will evaluate the information presented and determine any subsequent course of action, including contracting for implementation of OTIS-determined work. Such work may be procured through any procurement method available, and respondents to this RFI may be considered for selection to perform such work.

Responses to this RFI will not be returned. Respondents will not be notified of the result of the review, nor will they be provided copies of it.

3. Background Digital Government Services are provided through SC.GOV, the official government web portal for the State of South Carolina. The portal was developed to help citizens find information and services from both state and local government offices and information relative to South Carolina all in one place. SC.GOV is currently managed through a public-private partnership (P3) between the State of South Carolina and South Carolina Interactive, LLC, a subsidiary of NIC.

SC.GOV's objective is to be at the forefront of Digital Government Services and provide citizens and agencies with state-of-the-art web services and Internet tools to facilitate business with the government in a secure, convenient, and cost-effective way. SC.GOV offers state and local government entities the ability to automate routine, time-consuming tasks into interactive web-enabled applications for citizens and businesses, and streamlining government processes.

The SC.GOV program offers:

· Application Services – Build, enhance, and maintain secure online services that feature plain language, 100% accessibility, and a mobile-optimized designed from the outset with the security and privacy of citizen data in mind.

· Customer Service, Marketing, and Analytics – Provide 24/7 assistance to customers, leveraging site and transactions analytics from online services to establish best practices in these disciplines to improve adoption of SC.GOV services by both citizen and government.

· Payment Services – Provide secure, payment card industry (PCI-DSS) compliant payment products that provide online and in person point of sale payment for South Carolina government entities.

· Technology and Operations – Provide the management of infrastructure, hosting, networking, quality assurance, and security for each online application.

SC.GOV provides citizens and businesses with an easy, efficient, and secure way to conduct business with South Carolina’s government. State agencies and local governments gain efficiencies from offering Internet-based services.

Partnering with SC.GOV allows government entities to take advantage of SC.GOV's infrastructure and security by using the Internet to provide services such as:

· Financial transactions,

· Applications for licenses, permits, registrations, other related documents,

· Data searches, and

· Any other services that improves citizen access and government efficiency.

From its inception in 2005 through December 31, 2019, SC.GOV has:

· Processed more than 57.5 million transactions for state and local government in South Carolina,

· Collected more than $3.12 billion in revenue for state and local government partners, and

· Implemented 1,532 unique applications and interactive services.

SC.GOV is a self-funded service utilizing revenues generated from transaction fees associated with some of the online services. OTIS anticipates fundamentally overhauling the business model with the SC.GOV service provider(s), moving from a revenue-sharing P3 model to a more traditional consumption-based, revenue-funded sourcing model.

4. Vision and Desired Outcomes OTIS seeks to evolve the Digital Government Services with innovative technology and services while creating a more transparent business model that creates value for our customers and citizens of the state. Consumers have become accustomed to the ease and convenience of the digital marketplace, and SC.GOV customers deserve an experience on par with online retail and commercial services.

Vision:

A secure digital platform accessible from any device that provides a personalized, one-stop shop for citizens to engage with the government of South Carolina in a simple, seamless user experience.

Desired Outcomes:

· Modernized Platform

· Standardized, modern sites with common look and feel across state government.

· Intuitive citizen experience with enhanced convenience and search capabilities.

· Program Transparency

· Visibility into operational performance and payment service flow of funds.

· Alignment and visibility of services with fees charges to the State.

· Privacy and Security Assurance

· Secure transition of existing services, including compliance with PCI-DSS and other industry standards and required government security frameworks.

· Assurance that new services are delivered in compliance with privacy and security standards.

· Service Innovation

· Cloud-based web hosting and a personalized SC.gov mobile application experience.

· Citizen single sign-on capability with persona-based identity engagement.

· Governance Optimization

· Drive service transformation through an active partner relationship with the Service Provider.

· Create more value to the State within existing budgets through State control and management of investments.

5. General Information The intended audiences for this RFI are service providers with experience and expertise in Digital Government Services as described in the Overview and Background sections above. SFAA anticipates a future solicitation may include multiple statements of work that may be awarded to a single or to multiple respondents. As such, SFAA encourages responses to this RFI from specialist providers, including payment-only service providers.

The RFI schedule of events is included below. OTIS reserves the right to change the dates.

The sole point of contact for this RFI is Randy Barr, Sr., and can be reached as follows:

Randy Barr, Sr.

Procurement Manager – Team Lead Information Technology SC State Fiscal Accountability Authority 1201 Main Street, Suite 600 Columbia, SC 29201

(803) 896 -5232 rbarr@mmo.sc.gov Respondents shall make no contact with other OTIS and SFAA personnel, except as permitted by the point of contact, concerning this RFI.

6. Response Instructions Respondents should provide their responses in native Microsoft Office formatted documents (e.g., Microsoft Word or PowerPoint) via email to the point of contact listed above.

The emailed response must be received by email on or before the date and time of the RFI Response Due listed above. The time of receipt shall be the time recorded by the SFAA email system as received.

Please adhere to the following convention for subject lines in emailed RFI Responses:

[Company Name] – DGS-RFI#5400020924 Response – SC.GOV Where [Company Name] is a recognizable short-name or acronym for the respondent’s company.

Each submission shall be limited to a maximum of twenty (20) single-sided 8" x 11 ½" pages, excluding the title page, cover letter, and table of contents. SFAA encourages respondents to focus their responses on OTIS-specific elements instead of including generalized or marketing statements and collateral unnecessarily.

In order to facilitate the review of the responses content, please provide the information in exact order as listed below. Responses should be provided within the document directly below each question, maintaining the original formatting of this document.

Response Content:

1. A cover letter including company name, point of contact name, e-mail address, and telephone number.

2. A brief organizational overview, qualifications, and experience in providing Digital Government Services with similar scope and size, highlighting value-creating transformational elements.

3. A high-level overview of topics suggested for one-on-one "Art of the Possible" session.

4. Please include information on as many of the items in the list below in your submission related to Digital Government Services. Since the list is not all-inclusive, include information on other items you consider important and relevant to the State’s Digital Government initiative that your company could bring to the table. The information you provide shall generally describe your methodology, innovative operating and business models, critical success factors, success stories where they apply, and key lessons learned from previous digital services ventures in which you have participated.

a) Describe innovative, “art of the possible” methods in "delivering government services in the digital age at any time to any device."

b) Describe opportunities for growth in state government portal and payment services with specific examples of new services agencies have made available online in the last twelve months.

c) Describe how analytics and machine learning are leveraged today to support Digital Government Services and what innovations are expected in the next 3-5 years.

d) Describe investments in Digital Government Services that have yielded the greatest tangible return on investment (i.e., an increase in revenue or decrease in run cost).

e) Describe the requirements and best practices the state should consider to optimize payment services overall and to provide a transparent integration and reconciliation with the state’s treasury systems. Include in your response any new and innovative payment methods beyond online e-commerce and in-person point of sale credit card transactions that you can provide.

f) Describe the requirements and best practices the state should consider to optimize the Digital Government program's security.

g) Describe the requirements and best practices the state should consider in the development, release, and marketing of a Digital Government mobile application.

h) Identify the pros and cons of a single service provider Digital Government service versus a multi-provider solution (e.g., separate web portal services and payment services).

i) Describe your recommended pricing model for Digital Government Services that address all aspects of the service, including applications, payment, and operations.

j) Based on your experience, explain the roles and responsibilities for the state and local government and Digital Government Service Provider with respect to payment industry rules and PCI compliance.

k) Based on your experience in working as or with payment processors, describe how your business model would work if the service provider under this contract were not the Merchant of Record.

l) Describe the end-user support model you believe the state should implement to assist citizen’s and government agencies in moving the citizen transaction forward to completion when issues are encountered.

m) Describe how Digital Government Services are best leveraged to improve the citizen’s customer service experience and to improve the business partner relationship the State has with those third parties that must participate in the Digital Government Service model (county treasury offices, insurance firms, Federal agencies, etc.) for it to be successful.

n) Provide metrics and measures that you believe the state should implement to determine its “success” in rolling out Digital Government Services. How will the State know that it has achieved its objectives?

If you believe we missed any categories or capabilities, please include them in your Response.

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